Nov 23, 2023

17 Life Lessons at 17 Years Old

I just turned 17 today, and I felt it was only right to compile and share the most impactful lessons I have learned in the last 17 years.

17 Life Lessons

1. Don’t be a walking NPC

As defined by the urban dictionary, “an NPC is seemingly a human that is unable to think objectively.”

For me, there are two parts to this definition, those who can’t think critically, and those who choose not to think critically.

The ones who don’t think critically are equivalents of degenerates spamming “W Tate” in chat whenever he says anything and everything.

The ones who can think critically but don’t are equivalents of that one person you know who just agrees with whatever you say, and doesn’t challenge it, doesn’t discuss it, or provide any further thoughts of their own.

It’s extremely hard to converse with these types of people, and people will stop talking to you if you just keep agreeing with everything they’re saying or they will use you as a therapist.

Bottom line: Don’t be any type of NPC.

2. Stop consuming more content

There’s this false notion out there, that consuming more content will make you happier, and live a better, healthier life.

During the pandemic, I got involved in the cycle of trying to perfect my habits and optimizing every step of my life.

Heck, I started watching youtube at 2x speed. Everything I watched was at 2x speed. This way I was consuming the same amount of content in two hours of youtube, just consuming way more content than I previously did.

After a few weeks, I realized that I was losing the actual joy of watching the content and just trying to cram in as much content as I could.

There are two problems with this:

There will always be more content out there, no matter how fast you consume, or how much you consume you will never be able to cover everything. Rather you will become a mega individual from staring at your computer all day. Your willpower keeps on depleting. The more videos you watch, the more amount is taken from your willpower, which makes you less inclined to do work that will actually benefit you in life. This is a bigger problem than you might think as it reduces your ability to deep work, or focus on tasks for long periods of time.

You might’ve seen this with yourself post-pandemic, where your work ethic has gone down, due to distractions being closer than ever.

Sure, saving time is good in some sense, but don’t try and actively read every blog post, listen to podcasts all the time, and have videos playing while you eat food, as more content = more stimulation.

3. Have time to think

Perhaps the biggest drawback of consuming more content though is not having enough time to think.

For me, and lots of other people, they receive their best thoughts in the shower.

Why?

You have nothing else to think about the shower, you can let your mind wander and generate ideas for you.

This is extremely useful if you are in a creative field, such as creating a startup, as you constantly need new ideas for your product, market, or production.

It’s quite interesting too, as there have been studies that show that people are more likely to donate to charity and blood if they aren’t overstimulated the whole time.

This way, overstimulation harms you and your ability to do meaningful tasks.

4. Rejection is redirection

I got rejected from a lot of things these past years. Thankfully, my date for homecoming didn’t reject me.

From TEDx to girls, to a shit ton of tech internships I faced a lot of rejections. The point is not to show what I’ve gotten into or rejected from, but rather to realize that it’s a redirection and what that means.

Essentially, you have to accept the fact that you were unfit, and then keep developing your skill set, to maximize your chances next time.

I was just getting salty about this the other day — specifically my TEDx application, as I thought at least one of the three years I should have been able to give a talk.

Then the next day I got into ethSF, so I was extremely happy. My ~3 months of creating with solidity had just paid off.

I was so happy I got in!

Despite the setbacks, you will overcome obstacles, and achieve it, just stay strong in your endeavours.

You have to realize how you can approach the obstacle differently next time, and just realize that there will always be accepted you just have to keep on fishing.

5. Have bait to reel the fish in

I heard this analogy from my friend Nima, and it really resonated with me. The core premise is that whatever you’re doing in life, whatever opportunities you’re trying to obtain is very similar to fishing.

To catch fish while fishing, you need enough bait to reel the fish in.

The fish will come around, as in you will get lucky, at some point, and opportunities will be there.

It is your job through hard work to have enough qualifications, and knowledge to latch on and grab the opportunity.

You must have enough bait to reel the fish in.

6. Know Where the Fish Reside

I guess we can call this part my extension of the analogy, which is knowing where the fish reside.

You can’t expect to find fish in a body of water where no fish exist.

Similarly, you can’t expect to find opportunities in a highly saturated field, where no opportunities exist.

When there are fewer people in the field, you can contribute more value because there are more opportunities. Less supply, more demand.

For example, the field of machine learning has an extremely steep learning curve, and therefore less supply, but insanely high demand.

The best way to maximize impact in your industry of choice is to contribute value in a field with less supply and more demand.

7. Wake up at 5 AM

It changed my life. It might change yours.

Hold yourself accountable

While it doesn’t matter what time you wake up, have a consistent sleeping schedule. You’ll be more likely to finish your work and avoid falling victim to Parkinson’s Law.

8. Go attend shit

Any open times you have, go attend shit. Be open to events, and go to them.

In-person interactions create context, which creates memories. The more events you attend, the more context is created.

That’s why it's always useful to go to in-person events if you’re trying to expand your network.

People contact hundreds of people a day, but only meet up and remember those who allow the context to be created.

Attend things and also but participate in things.

Participate in spirit days, team building events, co-working. The more things you participate the more context is created which leads to stronger connections.

Earlier this year, I went to web3sf, and even though I had to take the caltrain and was extremely hesitant on going, I gained many new connections, and that experience taught me you should rarely be hesitant to go attend events.

If you’re in high school or college, live it to the fullest, you’ll only get to experience it once!

9. Create Opportunities

This idea of attending events, talks, meetups, mixers, goes hand in hand with creating opportunities.

Attending events is a great way to create opportunities.

Another way to create opportunities for those people around you is being a connector.

Introducing your friends to each other, throwing a large get together, allowing people to meet, and discuss topics which each other, all goes hand in hand with connecting people

This closely relates to the concept of Serendipity, by David Perell, which I absolutely love.

The idea is that you want to create as many opportunities for yourself as you can and do this is the easiest way possible.

No one wants to spend $5,000 connecting people, but rather a simple zoom call, or a simple escape room with your co-workers, will all help connect individuals.

It’s important that you take the initiative for these types of connection events, otherwise you’ll be waiting forever. I learned this the hard way.

10. Live like old people

I’ve always admired how my grandparents live. They get excited at the most mundane things, and aren't consumed by social media all the time.

Rather, the enjoy activities like knitting, gardening, playing with their grand-children, and going on walks.

They live what I like to call low-stimulation lives, not constantly sucked into the buzz going around, rather enjoying the present.

When I think about people living a content life, a lot of it comes from low-stimulation individuals, as they aren’t constantly being fed content.

To become less stimulated, is to take part in these activities such as reading, or going and experiencing nature, rather than watching tiktok.

But perhaps the best way to lead a less stimulated life, is just spend more time with your family.

I think about one of my good friends, Anuj because of the amount of time he spends with his family.

There’s something about allotting time to the family which just makes you feel more productive, and a better person.

Try to maximize in-person time with friends and family, because it creates context, so its easier to remember and cherish.

11. School is a catalyst

My high school experience, from an academic standpoint, has been subpar. The first year I was entirely virtual which was possibly the lowest point in my 17 years.

The next year wasn’t much better, as I often didn’t want to go to school, and was just going through the motions.

For me, I didn’t see any value in going to school, as I was learning so much more at home by myself, and accomplishing so much more, like building these web apps.

The main thing that got me through school was the idea of using a school as a catalyst.

A catalyst for you to embrace your passions. Try to find like-minded people, people who you can work on your passions with, AKA friends.

In academics, use your classes to create projects which align with your passions. Create speeches, dialogues, drawings, and leverage the resources the school has to offer including teachers, and libraries.

I recall three specific instances of when I did this my sophomore year which made the process more enjoyable.

In my chemistry class, I essentially wanted to be seen as “cool”, so I wrote a few fifty or some lines of python code, which helped generate noble gas configurations. This directly aligned with my passion for building, and this way I was also able to learn chemistry, and people in that class finally learned my name.

In my CS class, we were to create a project which had some basic requirements. I probably could’ve finished that project in a day, and not learned anything, by just recycling something that I had coded in the past, but I wanted to expand my skills, and that’s how I built an app which calculates the time you’ve spent on chess.com.

Then in April, I thought it would be extremely useful to make a parody of calculus, so I created a parody of God’s Plan by Drake, called the integral of u du.

Essentially, just try to have school align with your projects and passions, as if it’s something you’re gonna have to do, you might as well learn something or enjoy the process.

12. Fax your phone out of your room

Essentially, the core idea is to quite literally, fax your phone out of your room when you go to bed.

Still have an alarm in some way, but it’ll require you to deliberately obtain your phone outside, or if you don’t want to leave your room you’ll have to resort to some alternatives such as reading a book or meditating/journaling, or whatever else your hobbies are when you lack electronics.

For example, when I don’t have any electronics, I often like to practice card tricks so I can rizz girls on the streets of NYC when I’m 30.

13. Read

I can’t express this enough, read, read, read.

Reading quite literally got me through the pandemic, I devoured several great books including Atomic Habits, Show Your Work, Sapiens, and Predictably Irrational.

Think about it this way, someone has spent at least 3 months writing that book, and you can consume it in two hours, which is an incredibly high-value proposition for you.

14. The little things

Do the simple little things.

Smile at people. Make people birthday cards. Thank employees by their names. Listen to people’s stories and points of view. Try to talk to someone new every day.

For me, one of the best things to happen is keeping in touch with people I’ve spent elementary/middle school with or even played soccer/volleyball with.

Even though those days are gone, and we no longer bond over those activities, both parties have so much to share and discuss.

Just yesterday, I was talking to a friend of mine from elementary on the future of solar panels, which we noticed while walking.

15. High Density Fun vs Low Density Fun

I forgot where I read this exactly, but there’s this ideal of low density fun vs high density fun.

Low density fun would be classified as scrolling instagram for long periods of time. While your dopamine sensors do go off, and you feel “entertained”, it’s not exactly “fun”.

High density fun, on the other hand, is activities that actually require some type of investment and will yield you greater value.

These could include bowling with friends, kayaking, or literally anything that requires some sort of a commitment and you find entertaining.

Not only will this leave you more fulfilled, you’ll now have a goal to work towards, rather than being distracted by low density fun every 20 minutes.

Maximize high-density fun. Work hard, play harder.

16. Buy a whiteboard or journal

Do it. It will 10x your productivity.

17. Be authentic with yourself

I’m in a position where I don’t have to put on a mask or an external facade just for people to like me.

I see this as a privilege, some people have to mask their depression or their struggles, and I am immensely thankful I can be true to myself and the people I know. That’s why I listed my rejections earlier in this blog, I don’t want to be seen as someone perfect.

Everyone has imperfections, there are always behind-the-scenes difficulties people face, and it’s tough to show your flaws. But for me, it helps me progress in the way I want my life to go.

Some people I know will look at this article and think “what a sweat”, “bro thinks he’s him”, “who tf actually writes blogs”, “this shit is so cringe”.

However, I don’t worry about that anymore because I’ve identified my values in life, and writing and reflecting are something that I find valuable to myself, and hope to provide value to others too.

Over the pandemic, I was able to find myself, and what my values are, and as I’m getting closer to my twenties, I want to refine my mental models and values and keep on being authentic with myself, and those around me.

Thank You

I love feedback on anything I write or just meeting people, so feel free to get in touch at krishrastogi.com, or reach me on Twitter.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. It really means a lot to me.